Inquirer series ‘The Probation Trap’ wins prestigious national journalism award

The Inquirer’s “The Probation Trap” series was awarded a Hillman Prize, one of the nation’s top investigative journalism awards, on Thursday.

The series was reported by Samantha Melamed and Dylan Purcell, with photographs and videos by Jessica Griffin.

The Hillman Prize honors “deep storytelling in service of the common good. Recipients exemplify reportorial excellence, storytelling skill, and social justice impact.”

The Sidney Hillman Foundation was to celebrate the newspaper series, along with other award winners in the book, magazine, criticism, online, and television categories at a Facebook Live awards ceremony hosted by the actor Danny Glover at 7 p.m. Thursday.

In the five-part series, the reporters revealed problems with Pennsylvania’s probation system and how it affected the lives of nearly 300,000 people under “correctional control.”

Through scores of interviews, months of court-watching, and first-ever data analysis, their stories showed that while probation is often proposed as an alternative to incarceration, it is instead a major driver of it.

» READ THE SERIES: The Probation Trap

The series revealed that even during a time of falling crime rates, probation has grown unchecked in Pennsylvania because of unusual state laws that set few limits on probation or parole, and a courthouse culture in which judges, working without guidelines, impose wildly different versions of justice. In the region’s courthouses, they uncovered a system of “mass supervision” that routinely punishes poverty, mental illness, and addiction.

“The Philadelphia Inquirer series didn’t only uncover a remarkably entrenched cycle of ‘violate, revoke and resentence,’ it also provided solutions to remedy this largely hidden perversion of justice in America,” said Hillman judge Alix Freedman of Reuters. The judges also noted Griffin’s “beautiful images and videos that bring people’s stories to life.”

The Inquirer’s Garland Potts and Chris Williams also contributed to the series.

“The Hillman Prize rewards great reporting, great storytelling, and, most significantly, the impact on social justice that results from great journalism,” said Gabriel Escobar, editor and vice president. “The five staffers who worked on ‘The Probation Trap’ met this incredibly high bar by revealing systemic problems and reporting on solutions — in other words, investigative journalism at its best.”

In addition to Freedman, this year’s prizes were judged by the writer Ta-Nehisi Coates; the New Yorker’s Jelani Cobb and Hendrik Hertzberg; the American Prospect’s Harold Meyerson; and the Nation’s Katrina vanden Heuvel.